


Pillow Forts and Cuddle Piles

by minamiren



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Bulges and Nooks, Cuddle Pile AU, Fluff, I was so excited to write this and get it done, M/M, Oral Sex, also john has a slight oral fixation, and john is dumb and does not get this, are also a thing, here i go abusing tags again, i am so fuckin proud of myself, i hope its as good as i think it is, in which piles are quadrant things, there is a lot of cuddling, yeee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-27
Updated: 2015-05-27
Packaged: 2018-04-01 11:36:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4018270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minamiren/pseuds/minamiren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You have decreed that tonight will be “The Night.” One may think that being sixteen years old and having gone through all the trials of the game would have matured you a bit past this level, but nope. Maybe you have matured in some ways—of course you have, you’ve grown up probably more than any person should over the past three years, considering everything you’ve been through—but this is most certainly not one of those ways.</p>
<p>Tonight, you and Karkat are going to build a pillow fort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pillow Forts and Cuddle Piles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Here is a fic for my lovely friend, [Gear](http://hazardgear.tumblr.com) for being a wonderful friend and putting up with all of my ranting and dumb problems, and also just being awesome in general.

You have decreed that tonight will be “The Night.” One may think that being sixteen years old and having gone through all the trials of the game would have matured you a bit past this level, but nope. Maybe you have matured in some ways—of course you have, you’ve grown up probably more than any person should over the past three years, considering everything you’ve been through—but this is most certainly not one of those ways.

Tonight, you and Karkat are going to build a pillow fort.

And not just any pillow fort! You have decided that it will be one of your most epic pillow forts ever created by man or trollkind. You already have full plans ready to be put into action, including several bowls full of various levels of sugar, a large amount of cushions that you managed to alchemize, and all of the blankets you can gather up, plus more alchemized ones.

All you have to do now is wait for the grumpy troll-of-honor to arrive. He’s your best buddy and you know he’d never miss movie night, no matter how much he grumbles about your totally awesome taste in movies at you over Pesterchum and Trollian. (He doesn’t even hate them, either! He gets just as into them as you do.)

You and Karkat stuck fast from the moment you and Jade arrived on the meteor—something about the two of you being friendleaders and the way he had trolled you all throughout your childhood just…pulled you together. You barely even realized it happening, but it just did. You think by now half of your stuff has a permanent location at Karkat’s block, and half of his has taken up official residence in your room. You don’t live that far from each other on the meteor and at least fifty percent of your life since you got here has been spent sleeping and hanging out at Karkat’s (and vice-versa for him).

So you’re not remotely surprised when he raps at the door to your room at exactly seven—when you told him to meet you—like he had been waiting in front of your door just so he’d be perfectly on time, when he doesn’t even need to technically knock on because he has your key. He’s also carrying a plastic grocery bag, which you assume is full of his favorite troll movies. Perfect.

“Okay,” you tell him, ushering him inside before closing the door. “Put that bag down on the dresser or something. We need to build before we can start.”

He eyes you funny, like he’s cautious that you have some sort of trick planned. Well, that’s what you get for having such a prankster’s gambit, you suppose! Though there was no trick this time, only pillow forts and piles of blankets. Hell yes.

“And build what, may I ask?” he snaps at you, voice as cautious as his expression, even though he puts the bag of movies on the dresser like you had instructed anyway. “Please tell me that you are not attempting to design something that you deem ‘awesome’ again, Egbert. After “The Meteor’s Greatest Gusher” incident, I don’t think my bloodpusher could take the strain. It’d explode from pure misuse.”

You laugh awkwardly and run a hand through your hair, chagrined. Okay, so it’s not like you meant for the thing to explode in your faces! It was going really awesome before it popped! Even so, it had taken days to get the gusher goop and smell completely washed from your clothes and hair and…well, the rest of the room. You kind of got flooded and Karkat made you promise never to make him help you in one of your projects again.

But this was totally different! And it was going to be the best thing ever, not to mention the fact that you’ve done it so many times before that your fort-building skills are absolutely the best.

“Nope!” you answer cheerfully, then wave your arms with a flourish at your bed and the dozens of blankets and pillows and cushions piled on top of it. It actually looks rather more like you’re flailing towards that general side of the room, but Karkat does follow your gesture. “We are going to build a pillow fort. The awesomest pillow fort that has ever existed, and we are going to watch movies in it. You’re gonna love it,” you promise.

If Karkat had still had his movies in his hands, you’re pretty sure he would have just dropped them. You think he might even be blushing, though it’s kind of hard to tell on a troll—the only indication on Karkat is that his grey cheeks get slightly pinker.

“Um,” you say, not entirely sure how to take this. “Karkat, are you okay?” You don’t know how to deal with a short-circuiting troll.

He blinks up at you, one ear flicking. “Are you serious?” he asks, like he can’t believe that you just asked him to build a pillow fort with you. Like it’s the most surprising yet amazing thing to ever happen to him. You are kind of at a loss of how to take this.

"Uh, yeah?" You say back--it sounds more like a question. You're so confused.

He gives you this 'holy shit' look, both ears coming forward to give you his full attention. "Damn. Okay."

Huh. Not-so-shouty-Karkat behavior, but you're not complaining--he just agreed to build your pillow fort with you! You fist pump the air in celebration, and Karkat snorts, giving you another look that clearly says 'you are the hugest dork ever and dumb as shit sometimes but I still love hanging out with you.'

“One question, first.” Karkat’s tone of voice makes you look over at him curiously. “How the hell did you get so many pillows and blankets in here? I see crocheted blankets, and that’s shit only Rose knows how to do. Please tell me you did not actually steal from Rose, John.”

You laugh nervously before shaking your head. “No way, I just got the captcha codes for a bunch of different pillows and blankets and replicated them.” You had no intention on dying at the tips of Rose’s needles, not after all the other shit you’d been through and survived. Even if you’d come back, that would be a just plain embarrassing death.

He seems to quickly relax at this, ears flicking. “Okay then. How do you plan on making this thing?” You grin widely—finally, you get to teach Karkat in the totally sacred arts of pillow fort building.

“Well,” you start, grinning, and the look on Karkat’s face in reaction to your expression is honestly hilarious.

“Why do I have the impression that I have just asked a question that I do not want to know the answer to? Building piles isn’t supposed to be a terrifying prospect, holy shit.”

“You have no reason to be terrified, dude,” you tell him. Then drag everything off your bed—and by that you mean everything, and this includes your mattress. And a shower rod that you have brought into this room for building purposes. “Now grab that chair over there and put it against the wall in front of my bed.”

“What the fuck,” he says, but does as you told him anyway.

Building the pillow fort goes a bit like this: you instruct him to do things, and he does them, complaining in an extremely Karkatian-like manner the entire time. The fort eventually does get built, though, with a bunch of pillows and blankets left over, just as you had planned.

When the two of you step back to admire your work—a beauty that has the wall acting as one side, your bed acting as another, your mattress as a third and your laptop on your chair in the opening, as well as a blanket draped over the shower curtain rod that you have balanced on the top of the chair and the bed, giving the two of you a little roof—you have to admit it: This fort is pretty fucking sweet.

“John?” Karkat asks you after the two of you have been staring for what has admittedly been a bit too long for the silence not to be awkward anymore. “How did you know how to do that shit?”

You tear your eyes away from the beauty in order to grin at him. “I’ve been building these since I was three,” you tell him, and laugh as his eyes widen comically. “I got so good at them. But we’re not done yet!”

He frowns some, eyebrows scrunching together in this adorable little confused face that you can’t help internally ‘awwww-ing’ at. Trolls. Too adorable for you. “What in the grubfucking hell is still missing? I don’t see anything.”

You roll your eyes and gesture at the pile of blankets and pillows you still have off to the side. “We have to fill the fort, dummy! So that it’s nice and soft and fluffy and comfortable!”  Seriously, you went to a lot of trouble to gather so many different blankets and pillows. They better get used!

The two of you grab armfuls of blankets and pillows and pull it all into the fort—which is when things get a little bit interesting.

When you try to just shove everything into a huge pile that you can lay on, he shoves you aside with a growl. “No,” he declares. “I’m not going to let you fuck this shit up, because you would definitely be the person to do so.” And then starts setting up the pillows and blankets…how he wants them to be, you suppose. Instead of creating a huge dump of soft things like you had been doing, he created this sort of nest-thing that honestly looks really comfortable. You have no clue how he does it—it’s almost artful how he creates the pillow pile, and the look of concentration on his face was absolutely precious as he worked to avoid dragging his horns against the roof of your fort while arranging things.

Finally, he sits back on his heels with a satisfied smirk, one fang poking out over his bottom lip. “In,” he orders you, pointing at the pillow-blanket nest.

“Uh,” you start, but one warning look from the troll has you shutting your mouth. “Okay! Into the pillow nest,” you declare, and a current of tension seems to leave Karkat as you climb in.

…Huh. It’s really soft. And really comfortable. Wow, Karkat knew what he was doing. You turn to thank him for helping you out before WOAH troll in your face.

Karkat has climbed into the blanket nest along with you—duh, it’s his nest too—and it’s only now that you realize that this is putting the two of you Very Close Together. And by this, you mean very. As in, he’s kind of pressed up against your side and you can feel his body heat and he’s really warm and you’ve never noticed that, are all trolls this warm or is it just him?

“Egbert. Are you okay, or did your thinkpan slither out of your auditory orifices in a sludge of ‘I don’t know what the fuck I’m ever doing so why am I even here’ sort of way?”

You blink. “Oh! Um, yeah. I’m totally fine. Great! What movie are we watching?” You are the best subject-changer. It is you.

It is also obvious that Karkat doesn’t buy it. However, he doesn’t press it either, and instead scrolls through the romcom list on the Netflix on your computer (how you still have Netflix after the world has ended is beyond you, but you won’t bother questioning it). He picks one and you let him without making a fuss of it—usually you do, even though it’s just for show. You end up liking the movie every time anyway.

You’re still vividly aware of the lump of Karkat pressed against your side, but whenever the movie starts your attention is trained there, focusing on the masterpiece unfolding on the screen of your laptop. You can’t help being glad that you had decided to get Karkat to build this fort with you. It made movie watching ten times better, at _least._

By the end of the movie, not only have you stopped freaking out about Karkat pressing to your side, but you are officially cuddling with the smaller troll. By this, you mean that you’re propped up against some pillows and blankets behind you so you can see the movie, and Karkat has settled himself between your legs and is leaning back against your chest—your arms are loosely around him, keeping him against you. If he moves, he’ll probably nail you in the jaw with one of his horns. You’re wrapped up in pillows and blankets as well—not entirely sure how that happened, but whatever. It’s nice and comfy and that’s all that really matters.

As the music to the credits finally end, you become aware of all of this—and one other thing.

“Karkat?”

“Huh?” He yawns, slumping down more in your arms. Awwwwww. Comfortable pillow and blanket piles must make him sleepy.

“Are you purring?”

A red eye cracks open to halfheartedly glare at you as best he can from his position. “No,” he lies, purring away. You can’t help laughing delightedly—Karkat was seriously adorable. You are having sweet overload here—there had been no reason to bring sugar and snacks to the fort, Karkat had brought all the sweet himself just by being there.

Speaking of, you totally forgot to bring the candy and popcorn into the fort. Oops. Oh well, maybe next time.

“It’s cute,” you tell him honestly, and this time you definitely see Karkat’s cheeks flush. He closes his eyes again and bonks you in the jaw with his horn, just like you’d feared he would. Oof.

“Shut up and let me sleep,” he grumbles at you, turning around in your arms to smoosh his face against your chest. You blink down at him, slightly confused at what just happened.

Except…Karkat totally just fell asleep on you, didn’t he? You try poking his shoulder. No response. Okay. That took like no time at all, he must have been totally wiped. You can’t help but be glad—your friendleader never got enough sleep, and so any minute that he has is a minute appreciated.

You had planned on watching another movie, even if the troll did fall asleep, but…something about watching Karkat rest, clawed fingers curled and relaxed against your chest, makes you rethink this. Okay. Maybe you should go get some shut-eye, too. You are in a huge pile of pillows and blankets, after all.

It takes a little bit of extremely careful maneuvers, but you finally get to a position in which you’re actually laying down. Karkat’s still snuggled against your chest and your arms are still around him. You’re surprisingly okay with this—snuggling with Karkat is quickly becoming your new favorite thing.

You pull another blanket over the two of you and close your eyes. You’re out within minutes.

You wake hours later, at a time that you’re going to assume is morning—it doesn’t really matter what hour it is though, in all honesty. It’s always night in the Veil; people just sleep and wake as they feel like it. Even Dave does, and he has a really cool internal clock that makes sure he literally always knows the time.

You kinda want one. Too bad you’re a Breath player (except not, because you wouldn’t trade the Breeze for any power in the world).

As something moves against you, you come to the attention that you’re not alone.

There is a troll curled up against your chest, purring in his sleep like his life depends upon it. It’s cute. Your legs are tangled with his and this is literally the gayest cuddling you’ve ever done. You can’t even bring yourself to care, though—not when Karkat’s face is so relaxed, not even angry for once. He wasn’t smiling, no, but he still looked…content. Yeah, that’s the word for it.

You’re content too, laying here with Karkat on top of you and cuddling with you. The blanket that you had wrapped around the two of you before sleeping was still draped over Karkat’s head—it turns out to be one of those of which you had borrowed the code from Rose. It looks crocheted, and you frankly wouldn’t be remotely surprised if she had made it by hand.

You really don’t want to wake him up. He rarely gets sleep as it is, and the fact that he trusts you enough to sleep on you really gets to you in some way that you can’t explain. It’s like…like, having a kitten that cowers from everyone who tries to approach it, but then lets you of all people hold it. It just gives you a whole lot of feelings you’re not completely sure how to deal with.

Unfortunately, you never really get a chance to contemplate and decide for sure whether you’re going to wake him up or let him sleep. Instead, you’re roused from your thoughts by Karkat twitching slightly, then blinking blearily, eyes still sleepy-tired. He stretches on top of you, arching his back exactly like a cat would, and you can’t help the smile you give. He’s adorable.

He pushes himself up slightly, elbows on your chest for balance, and this time you just plain giggle—the crocheted fabric of the blanket had gotten snagged on Karkat’s horns, so it was draped over his head like a sort of veil—it completed perfectly the just-woken-up look that he had going on. His red eyes turn to you at the sound of your words.

“What time is it?” His tongue stumbles over his words, obviously still sleepy.

You shrug. “I dunno,” you whisper back to him. “I woke up just before you did. How are you feeling?” You reach up to unsnag the blanket off of his horn, and he sits all of the way up on your stomach once you’ve done so, keeping you pinned on your back.

“Tired,” he tells you. “But need to get up.”

You frown, disappointed. “Why?”

“Because I’m hungry as shit and need something to eat, and the movie is over.”

“…Can I come with you?”

“Do whatever the fuck you want.” He swings his leg over you and climbs off, then turns around and crawls out of the fort. You follow him a moment layer, sighing. _Good bye sweet, sweet embrace of the warmth and comfort of pillows and blankets. May we meet again soon._

The two of you make your way into the room that has been officially designated as the food-creating (or burning) room, only to find Terezi pointing and laughing at Dave, who seems to be coughing and hacking at…what is that mush thing on the table? Is it…burned cherries mixed with some sort of tar?

You decide you don’t want to know, and proceed to start a food fight with said mush.

So cuddle piles become a thing.

They _so_ become a thing, the two of you building forts together in your room and climbing inside, watching movies until Karkat turns around and chirps sleepily at you, signaling you to shut off your computer and lay down with him so the both of you can go to sleep. In the morning, Karkat insists on taking apart each fort, so that you have to remake it every night you want to watch movies—which is essentially every night. You have no idea why he does this, but if you refuse to, he’ll just tear it apart himself, so you humor him.

Karkat has quickly become your favorite snugglebudy, and you do not even care about some of the snide jokes you’ve received from Dave since he walked into your room one night while the two of you were movie watching.

For one thing, Karkat has the most adorable movie-watching fort-cuddling habits. Every time you make one, he curls up to your side, no question, and bumps you on the chest or jaw with his horn if you say anything about it. He always falls asleep curled up on your chest, purring like a cat, and you melt every single time.

For another, he tends to become a lot…almost _sweeter_ whenever he crawls into a fort with you. He becomes promptly cuddly and rarely even complains about the movie you choose—if he doesn’t like it, he just turns his head and nuzzles against your chest and lets himself drift while you watch.

Sometimes you feel like your face might permanently become stuck blushing because of embarrassment of how close Karkat is getting to you, and you might never stop smiling because wow Karkat is absolutely the most adorable troll that you have ever seen.

Eventually you begin noticing that something was a bit…off. Different.

It starts maybe two weeks after the two of you first started building your forts together. You’re walking aimlessly through the halls of the meteor one day by yourself, completely not paying attention as to where you’re going, when you trip.

You yelp and fling your arms out in front of you as you fall, not wanting to land on your face and get a bloody nose. Except you never actually hit the floor. Instead you find that you’ve tumbled face first into a huge pile of pillows and blankets. Uh. What?

You sit there for a moment, completely confused, when a shuffling noise makes you turn. Karkat’s coming towards you, an armful of pillows and blankets trailing behind him. When he notices you sitting in the middle of what you’re going to assume was the pile he was making, he freezes and turns bright, bright red.

“Shit,” you say, scrambling to get out of the pile that you probably destroyed by literally falling face-first into. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—I wasn’t paying attention to where I was goING!”

This last increase in volume is because Karkat had shoved you back down in the pile by the shoulder, preventing you from getting up, then covering all but your head in the pillows and blankets that he had brought with him. “Stay the fuck there and don’t move your hyperactive ass until I’m done,” he instructs you. You nod slowly and watch as he arranges the blankets and pillows around you, then climbs in with you once he’s done, cuddling up to your side and curling up on your chest like he does whenever you’re in your room. Alone. Watching movies in a pillow fort, not pillow pile. Except. Wow, you kind of were cuddling with him in a pile in your room. You just had a fort around the two of you when you had done it.

But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re technically in public now!

“Karkat, are you sure this is a good idea-“

You get cut off by him covering your mouth with his hand. “Shut up and just cuddle with me,” he grumbles at you. “Don’t you realize where we are? It’s not like anyone’s going to come here.”

You take the chance to look around the room, now that you’ve been prompted by the troll. And, oh, look, this is the music room that you keep your piano in—it’s a room that only you really occupy, whenever you play. Karkat comes sometimes, too, whenever he hears you playing. It’s actually kind of genius to build this _here_ , of all places.

You consider making an excuse that you were going somewhere anyway, but then decide against it. Anything could wait for cuddling Karkat. Especially when he’s already started purring on your chest, which is something you just cannot get over. It’s freaking precious, and you would totally tell him that if you weren’t afraid of getting headbutted in the jaw again.

So instead you just wrap your arms around him, giving in to the inevitable cuddles and close your eyes. The two of you drift off together like this, taking a completely unprompted nap in Karkat’s pile that you have a sneaking suspicion he was making specifically for the two of you, and not just for himself.

After that day, things kind of…escalate from there.

You start finding piles everywhere—you can always tell if Karkat is the one who made it, too. You’re not entirely sure why, but they all have this sort of style to them or something that is just so Karkat to you that you recognize it immediately. Not to mention that they’re always made out of soft, cuddleable objects.

It takes you a few days, but you begin noticing a correlation with where he’s been building these piles. They’re all rooms that mostly you and he hang out in, and no one else. There are a few in more public spaces, but they’re generally off in the corner, inconspicuous (and yet you still can’t take your eyes off of them).

He doesn’t catch you often in the same room as one so that he can shove you inside, but sometimes he does, and you give in every time like the complete sucker that you are. You can’t help yourself! Karkat was the cuddleable-est. There was absolutely no contest about it.

And all of this aside, you can’t help but to be thrilled! Karkat’s being so enthusiastic about building piles and forts with you ever since you first introduced them to him. Dave, Rose, and Jade never really had the passion for fort building that you had, so it was huge fun to discover that Karkat enjoyed building them just as much as you did. Even though he showed his appreciation in kind of weird ways (like setting up piles literally everywhere you and he hung out in), he showed it all the same, and it meant a lot to you that he did.

Another thing that you start to notice is that Karkat is incredibly…adorable.

Well yeah, duh he’s adorable, that’s all you’ve been thinking for the past few weeks! But now you’re noticing it in a different way that you used to. Because whenever he’d curl up against you and purr you’d feel your cheeks heat up every time—except with something that isn’t embarrassment, not anymore.

And whenever he falls asleep and you get to see his defenseless, resting face your heart clenches in a way you can’t ignore.

When he wakes up the next morning, all muzzy and bleary-eyed and barely awake, you always get this warm feeling deep in the pit of your stomach. It’s definitely not a bad one. Instead, it fills you up, makes you whole, even—whole and happy.

You could get used to these feelings.

And you’re not stupid enough to be completely oblivious about a few things. Like the fact that the way that Karkat has been acting around you is completely different than how you’ve seen him interact with any of your other friends. For one thing, you don’t see him building cuddle piles with any of them. He’s been significantly less curse-y and insult-y whenever you’ve been in the piles, too. When you’re not in them, he’s just as loud and foul-mouthed and filled with creative derogatory lines as ever, but when you’re cuddling it’s like a switch was flipped, and he turns from surly, angry (yet still adorable) Karkat into cuddly, generally-sleepy Karkat.

And with this, you have to admit that you’re also not oblivious about some things that have to do with you.

Like the fact that you’re crushing on him.

Oh man, you remember having rubbed your heterosexuality in his face all those years ago. It was totally coming back to haunt you now, too. Because these warm, gushy feelings that make you feel like you’re overheating are definitely the feelings you get when you have a crush.

And boy, do you have the biggest crush on Karkat.

You feel really bad about laughing at him all those years ago now, even though you had originally had no idea what he was even talking about (black romance being a completely foreign concept to you at that point in time). You just hope that your guess about what all of this means is correct.

You really hope that Karkat still likes you—he has to, if he’s curling up on you and cuddling with you and being generally adorable. Right?

Fuck. He has to.

But you’re scared. You’re a chicken and you don’t know why you’re so timid, but for some reason you can’t just…ask him out. You can’t confess your feelings. And it’s not like you didn’t try at all—you did, once. You had taken a breath, opened your mouth, and then just couldn’t say anything. When you finally gathered enough courage to actually say his name, he had already fallen asleep on top of you, and you never have the heart to wake him up (especially for that).

So you pretty much suck.

And you hadn’t even managed to find out why exactly he’d been building all those piles that weren’t for movie-watching everywhere, either.

You do eventually find out what he’d been building all those piles for.

It happens about a month or so after the pile building adventures first began. You’re in your room laying on your bed before you realize that you had wanted to borrow a book from Karkat—something to read before going to bed, even if it was romance (most of it was good, anyway).

So you push yourself off of your mattress with a groan, summoning the Breeze for the sole purpose of putting you on your feet without using your own physical strength to do so. You land straight in your shoes, because your control over the wind has gotten so much better with practice, and now you’re not just kind of flinging yourself in the general direction you want to go anymore. You could probably play a song on your keyboard with just the Breeze with how precise you’ve become.

You consider grabbing a movie for a bit, but then you realize—you’ve never built a pillow fort with Karkat in his block. So you decide against it, not wanting to ask him to do something that he doesn’t want to do, and instead set out through the hallways towards where his room is.

You open his door without hesitating—or knocking—when you get there. Why should you? It's not like Karkat ever bothered to warn you before he came into your room.

However, you're kind of thinking maybe you should have knocked now. Because right there, in the smack-dab center of his room, is a pile. A huge one, too. Blankets, pillows, soft clothes, the works—is that the shirt that you've been missing?

Karkat himself is frozen like you walked in on him in the act of something really embarrassing—he’s climbed halfway on top of the pile, not nestled into it yet, frozen with wide eyes and a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.

"Uhm," you say, eloquently as ever. "I just was coming for that book you offered me to borrow?" You almost ask for your shirt and blankets back, but—you can't. You don't know why; they _are_ yours, so you have full rights to take them back, but for some reason the sight of him starting to curl up in this huge pile of his and your stuff and a huge abundance of pillows and blankets makes you rethink asking for them back.

He looks at you for a moment, face impassive, then sighs and nods. "Okay," he mumbles, starting to crawl back out and aw shit you can't make him do that after he made that pile—because now that you're looking at it, it's definitely big enough for two. It's no fort, but for some reason you don't care, so you shake your head at him quickly.

"No!" You protest, loudly and suddenly enough that he jumps slightly before frowning over at you. You clear your throat, suddenly awkward. "I mean. It can. Wait? If you'd like me to climb in there with you instead."

Wow, way to go assuming things, John. What if that's not what he wanted? Fuck.

Karkat rolls his eyes at this. "Just get the hell in here if you're going to," he tells you. You grin widely and kick off your shoes before crawling up the side and into it, settling down in the nest-like dip Karkat had made in the center.

"These are actually really nice," you comment without being able to help yourself as Karkat situates himself at your side and nuzzles your shoulder, pulling blankets over you. "Though...no movie?" You raise an eyebrow at him. He doesn't look tired. You aren't, either, so you're kind of confused.

He shakes his head. "No, dipshit. Not everything is about movies, you know. Especially these piles you keep making with me."

Okay, now you're kind of lost.

"Huh?" You ask, confused. "The piles?"

"Yes, the piles."

"What about them?"

Karkat stares at you for a moment. His claws go up to your hair, brush through gently, and you tilt your head into his soft touch without being able to help yourself. "This," he murmurs, and it takes you a moment to realize that that was his answer to your question.

For some reason, you're still not expecting it when he kisses you. You see his eyes flit down to your lips, and then his own are pressing against them. It utterly surprises you, and you can't help freezing for a moment, wide eyed.

This. This was happening? Holy shit.

And then you realize that Karkat is pulling away, and he is red and looks guilty and shit that's because you didn't kiss him back, and he thinks that you're going to get mad and tell him you're not a homosexual.

Well, you're not, but you've known you're not straight for a while, either.

So you take his face in your hands and, before he could say anything or have the chance to apologize, you close the gap between the two of you and kiss him again.

This time he's the one who freezes, but it's only for a moment. Then he's kissing you back, kissing you like it's the only thing that he can do to keep him grounded, right here.

You keep noticing little things, as your lips move against his. Like the fact that even though his lips are chapped, they're still soft. His skin heats up under your fingertips, and you know he's blushing. He holds you close as the two of you kiss, pressing against you like you'll disappear if he doesn't. Like he was afraid this was a dream.

Maybe he was.

The thought of this, the thought of Karkat dreaming of being able to kiss you because of how much he's liked you—you don't even know how long, shit—makes you fall even harder for the troll you're already slipping for.

The kiss stays innocent—no more than the dry press of lips moving gently against each other—and yet it still makes you shaky, like you would have collapsed if you had been standing. Maybe you would have.

Either way, when you pull away from him, the both of you are shaking quite a bit. He's trying to hold his claws steady against the back of your head, you can tell, but he's failing.

You bite your lip as you study his face. He looks almost scared still, like he's terrified that you're going to go 'haha just kidding, very funny.'

You're not. You couldn't do that, even as a joke. Wow, you feel a lot for him already, don't you?

"John-" he starts, but you quickly cut him off.

"No," you tell him firmly, anticipating what he’s about to ask you. "I'm not joking around. I was serious when I kissed you back. I just have one question."

He eyes you warily, but nods. "Well?"

"Why all the piles and shit? I mean, I get pillow fort piles and cuddling was...honestly more awesome than I'd like to admit, but I want to know why."

He stares at you blankly. "John Egbert, your stupidity astounds me. How you could have been doing this so effectively for over a month eludes my grasp, I just can't believe it. Holy shit, do you seriously not know?"

"Uh," you say. "Not know what?"

"Pile building," he says slowly, as if he has to spell every word out to you slowly so that you'll understand, like you're two, "is a quadrant thing."

You blink at him. You hadn't known this. "Oh."

Well that might explain things.

Karkat groans, slapping a hand to his face in his exasperation. "The fact that you have managed to successfully flirt with me without even knowing you were doing so, and yet still want to kiss me back is something that I doubt I will ever understand."

You give him a chagrined look (or as close to as possible). "I loved cuddling with you," you admit. "I was afraid of doing it at first—because you know, gay—but you'd be so adorable and sweet and the way that you'd curl up on top of me was actually really comfortable, so I let you. And then after that it just sort of...happened. I started to like you."

Karkat's blushing in that adorable way again—eyes averted and cheeks a pale pink color under all the grey. You kind of want to kiss him again, a lot. You end up settling for pecking the tip of his nose. "Couldn't really help it," you finish with a murmur.

Karkat seems to practically shiver against you, and you run your hands over his shoulders as soothingly as you can.

"You don't even know what you did that was considered flirting, do you?" He snorts.

You shrug some, awkwardly lopsided since you're lying down. "I didn't. I'd never heard that before."

Karkat sighs. "It depends on the quadrant. Matesprits make piles together out of soft, fluffy, comfortable things, or things of their matesprit's. Moirails make each other piles out of things the other likes. Kismeses make piles out of things their kismesis hates, and ashen piles consist of hard things like books, or movie cases. Makes the kismeses focus on their facilitator's words."

You raise an eyebrow at him. "So that's why some of my shirts and blankets are in here?" You ask.

Karkat turns slightly red, but nods. "That's...really cute, actually," you admit. "And basically by making the pillow fort with you, I ended up proposing a matespritship?"

"Yeah, you did, you fucker," Karkat confirms, and you grin.

"But you like me back," you point out. "You should thank me!"

Karkat's eyes narrow. "Thank you for leading me on into what almost could have been a very embarrassing unrequited confession," he growls sarcastically.

You just press a kiss to his nose again. "Good enough."

You shift some so that instead of Karkat lying almost on top of you, you're sprawled over of him, practically nose-to-nose. You barely hold yourself above his face, controlling your breathing enough to be able to hear his speed up, watch his cheeks flush and his eyes lid. Nnngh.

You give in to the urge after a very short amount of time—not that you had planned to ignore it, anyway—and you lean in and kiss him, fingers cupping his cheek and tilting his chin towards you.

The kiss is soft, sweet, and perfect and you have never been so sure of a choice that you'd made in your life. His hands rest on your hips at first, before sliding upwards to wrap around your torso and pull you closer, flush together. Your tongue swipes his bottom lip gently, he parts them, and it's all a rush from there.

He gasps softly into your mouth as you push your tongue into his. His back arches up into you, his long tongue laps against yours in a hesitant return of affection, and you're pretty much head over heels—not to mention getting kind of light headed because the longer you kiss, the better Karkat gets (you both get) and the more he takes your breath away.

You find this thought very ironic.

Karkat shifts underneath you, leg coming up to press his thigh against your hip, hooking around your waist. It pulls your hips together, and you can't help the soft noise you make into his mouth at the friction of him grinding against you.

Okay. Time for a break.

"Karkat," you murmur against his lips, but get cut off from finishing as he occupies your mouth again, practically tonguefucking you.

You let yourself give in for just a bit longer, returning his kisses before finally steeling yourself and pushing him away. He whines in protest, a noise that makes you just want to pull him close and kiss and kiss and kiss him some more.

"Karkat, we need to stop," you tell him firmly.

His face falls for a moment, before it clicks. When it does, he turns bright red and loosens the death grip he's had around your waist with his legs. "Sorry," he mutters.

You just grin and lightly peck him before rolling off, settling down at his side. "Its fine," you assure with a little laugh. "I don't mind all that much." You waggle your eyebrows at him suggestively, and he plants a hand on your face and pushes you away.

You yelp in protest, making a muffled noise against his hand as you flail. He just snickers at you, asshole that he is.

His hand is still on your face, so you wrap your fingers around his wrist, gently tugging and finding that he wasn't really trying hard to hold it there at all. "Hey," you say softly, smiling.

"Hey," he grumbles back.

"I have a question," you ask him after a moment of contemplation, reaching up and tucking a small piece of hair behind his pointed ear.

"What is it?"

"Does this mean that we're technically boyfriends now?" You blink, then correct yourself. "Matesprits?"

The blush that had been fading off the troll's cheeks comes back with full intensity, and he headbutts you right underneath your chin, like he had the first time the two of you had made a pillow fort. Oof again.

"Of course we are, dipshit," he insults you, but his voice holds no venom. "I wouldn't make out with someone like that without fully intending them to be in one of my concupiscent quadrants, and I would be frankly ashamed if you would."

You laugh some and kiss the very tip of one of his horns. "Nope, I wouldn't," you half-singsong to him. "I wanna be your boyfriend."

"Matesprit," he corrects.

You roll your eyes. "Same difference," you tell him, and then kiss him softly in order to silence the _no it's not, they're completely different_ protest that was sure to come.

You part a few moments later, grinning victoriously at him.

"I know exactly what you were doing there, you little shit," he growls at you. "You're still wrong, but what the fuck ever, I'll let you get away with it. This time."

You snuggle him closer in gratitude, tucking his head under your chin and closing your eyes with a happy hum. You're still not all that tired, and you never got that book you had come for, but you can't bring yourself to particularly care. For now, you're fine where you are, cuddling close with Karkat in the pile he made for you.

You don't think you've been happier in a long time.

The next few days are the best you've ever had.

Karkat still comes over every night, and the two of you make pillow forts together—except now they're just huge pile-nests of blankets and pillows and soft clothing of the both of yours, and you balance your laptop precariously on an edge in order to watch. There is also a lot closer cuddling, as well as kissing. In fact, you end up not actually watching too many of the movies that you've put on. Karkat's lips have become your new favorite form of entertainment.

So have his noises—like the little whinegasp he'll make if you suck on his tongue, or the way that he'll just melt into you with even the softest of kisses. His hands wander everywhere, and you love that too—your face, your neck, sides, hips, even sometimes pulling you closer by his fingers on your butt, which is always pretty nice when it happens (even though it's not often).

So yeah, you're really enjoying this time with Karkat, being able to date him. Not to mention how he doesn't act different towards you now that you're his boyfriend! Matesprit. Whatever. He still insults you, laughs at your failures, and snickers when you do something dumb and hurt yourself—but while he does so, he'll sit a little closer, speak a little softer, lean in and make sure you're all right after he's done being an asshole.

Sometimes he'll kiss it better (kiss _you_ better). You really like it when he does that.

You don't really advertise the fact that you've gotten together. Rose caught on almost immediately and told Kanaya, and you've received no end of lurid and suggestive commentary from the both of them.

After this, the two of you collectively realized how bad of an idea it would be if _Dave_ knew—seriously, he'd never shut up about it and stop teasing you—so you started being even more subtle. Makeouts are confined to the safety of either your room or his, behind closed doors. You're even careful about holding hand, which sucks, because you love watching the way the tips of your troll's ears flush whenever you tangle your fingers together.

You can never wait for nighttime, when you can grab Karkat and pull him close and snuggle with him, burrow under blankets and soft things and kiss him till you're both stupidhappy with feelings. You can't help how important he is to you.

Because he really is, already, important enough that the nights you have together are your favorite part of the entire day.

You're in a pile in your room right now, actually—neither of you had bothered to grab any movies to watch. You hadn't got to see each other all day today, and you wanted to spend your night just holding your boyfriend/matesprit. You're glad that he seemed to have had the same idea.

And by spending your night holding him, you mean making out until far past midnight, where you'll fall asleep together out of exhaustion. It's really nice.

Karkat is sprawled out on top of you, clawed fingers gently cradling your face as he kisses you and sucks on your lip, drawing soft happy noises from you. Your hands are running along his sides, fingers grazing gently over fabric, catching on your callouses and his grub scars. You had learned very early on that Karkat loved soft touches, and that his scars were really sensitive and one of your favorite activities was putting this knowledge to use.

You let his weight pin you down to the pillows underneath—it's nice and comfortable and you really enjoy it. His hips rest between your thighs and you keep him close, sighing happily into his mouth.

And just about then, when your fingers have creeped up under the hem of his shirt and he's tilted his head in order to kiss you deeper, things go wrong.

By this, you mean that your door opens.

And it's the person you would least like to see right at this moment.

"Yo John, sorry for bursting in here but you have an amazingly shitty habit of not locking your doors which has turned out to be super convenient in the past few wee—,” Dave's voice cuts off as he takes in the scene in front of him. "Uh."

You had stopped kissing Karkat the moment Dave's voice registered, but it's very obvious what you've been doing—Karkat's lips were red and swollen and you were pretty sure that yours were as well. Not to mention that your brain froze along with your body when he walked in, so your hands are still halfway under the hem of his sweater, touching warm grey skin.

"Dave," you manage, not daring to turn to look at Karkat's expression right now. He's going to kill you for not locking your door whenever Dave leaves. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I _was_ going to come in here to bother you because you haven't been spending any bro time with me lately, but I think I've just now figured out why." He raises his eyebrows at the two of you pointedly, and you feel the blush bloom across your features. You're reasonably sure that Karkat has turned just as red as you have.

"Shut the fuck up, Strider," Karkat growls from above you, and even though you can still feel the noise resonate against you, it was obvious how different it was than when he purrs. "This shit is none of your business."

Dave raises his hands up in the air in mock-surrender at the two of you. "Woah, man, I wasn't insulting you! Obviously my two best bros have gotten it going on, and I fully support that. Y'all need to get laid anyway. Especially Karkat."

You make a strangled noise and hide your face against Karkat's shoulder. You are going to die of embarrassment, right here and right now. "Dave no," you whine.

"We aren't pailing," Karkat snaps at pretty much the same time. "So shut the fuck up about that shit and get your ass out of this room before I kick it into next week for you, time powers unnecessary."

You can't help snickering against his jaw at this.

"So how many people on this meteor know?"

Your snicker turns into a groan. "Like, Rose and Kanaya! That's it! Unless Karkat told someone, but I don't think he did."

"I didn't," he mutters to you under his breath.

"Well then," Dave says, and you look up at him again. He's staring at you impassively through his shades (you think), hands in his pockets. "Should I leave you two lovebirds to making out like you were before I oh so rudely intruded?"

You're tempted to say no, just out of embarrassment, but Karkat beats you to responding. "I want you to get the hell out of here so I can spend time with _my_ matesprit, whom I didn't get to hang out with all day, and you can suck it the fuck up and talk to him another time," he shoots.

"I kind of really want to spend my nights with Karkat from now on, Dave," you say quietly, then make a face at his expression. "Not like that, I mean we're literally just sleeping! Stop giving me that face!"

Dave has lifted his shades to give you a Look, one that implies quite a bit.

His look makes you squirm uncomfortably under Karkat's warm weight for another few moments before he drops the frames back onto his face, turning away with a wave. "Okay then, okay, I'll believe ya. Doesn't mean I won't tease the shit out of you about this starting tomorrow," he practically promises.

"See you guys then," he adds, and then he's gone.

You groan again as soon as the door closes, dropping your head back against the blanket it had been resting on before Dave had come in. "We are never going to live this down," you moan at him.

"You never took your hands out of my sweater," he informs you, bringing attention to the fact that your fingers are still resting along his sides, just under his grub scars.

You pull them out quickly, then slap his shoulder. "You suck! You should have made me take them away!"

"I liked them there," is his only response, and you're red all over again by the time he kisses you, and keeps kissing you until the two of you fall asleep with each other like always, your arms around him.

You've been dating for weeks, a few months even. It's absolutely amazing.

Karkat has very quickly become someone more important to you than anyone else you know—and yeah, maybe that's selfish, or mean, but you can't help it. You're pretty sure you're in love.

Building piles together is one of your favorite activities to date. You've actually made a pretty permanent one in Karkat's room; it's filled with soft pillows and blankets and both of your clothes and stuffed animals. It's like, the softest, most comfortable thing that you've ever been on. Needless to say, you very much enjoy kissing your boyfriend in this pile. Seriously, you've been in it so much that you don't have to bother digging around and getting comfortable. You can just climb in and it's practically perfect already.

Your friends are all aware of the nature of your relationship with Karkat by now, too. It was kind of embarrassing as fuck to tell them (even though you didn't really, because Dave spilled it to most of the meteor almost immediately, the little shit). But despite this, they've all been incredibly supportive of you, something that you can't help but to appreciate. You had been afraid despite yourself that they wouldn't be, or that they'd judge you or not like you because of your choice to date Karkat, but you certainly recognize this as an irrational fear now. They're actually really happy you've gotten together with him, you've noticed—you make Karkat happy, and that's all you ever want to do.

Kissing seems to do that trick a lot.

But you're not making out this time, for once! Instead, the two of you are watching a movie on your phone (laptop was still in your room and you just wanted to cuddle already). Karkat is sitting back in your lap as he watches the movie, going ahead and making himself comfortable against your chest and between your legs. You have an arm wrapped around his waist to hold him close and keep him there—it's really comfortable.

Not to mention that Karkat is totally purring. You can feel the vibrations against your chest, which makes you giggle some, because wow your boyfriend is adorable.

He really is the cutest, though; watching him being adorable as shit is why you started liking him in the first place. You can't help leaning over to lightly kiss his jaw.

"John," he mumbles. "Movie." He's pretty absorbed in it, not wanting you to distract him while he's trying to watch. Actually, you were just as involved as well, until you got too sidetracked with admiring your boyfriend. Who is attractive as hell.

Also you've kind of been thinking about the words Karkat had yelled at Dave those few months ago—still. "Not pailing." Did that mean he wants to? It's not like you can just ask.

Well, you probably could, but that would be awkward as hell and you would prefer not to deal with that.

You're perfectly aware that trolls used to have to fill buckets in order to keep the drones from killing them. You've learned this a while ago, and have actually made an effort to remember. That being said, Karkat does not seem to be pushing you at all. In fact, minus the first kiss the two of you shared, you've been the only one to move your relationship forward in terms of physical affection.

Also you maybe want to try getting Karkat naked underneath you. Or possibly with his thighs wrapped around your head.

Ugh. Thinking. You should probably stop for now and just watch the movie.

You utterly fail at ceasing to think about either of these situations your mind has thought up.

"Do I _have_ to stop?" You end up muttering, hands sliding to rest on his hips as you kiss along his neck from behind another few times.

Karkat grumbles some, but when he leans back into you some more you know that you've won. "No, but you better finish the movie with me later, asshole," he tells you, pausing the thing on your phone and tossing it off to the side of the pile. Hopefully it landed on something soft, wow. You don't want to have to deal with a broken screen.

He lets you just lavish him in attention like that for a while, pressing soft, slow kisses to the side of his neck, fingers gently playing over his stomach. And then you guess he decides that he's done just letting you kiss him, because he turns around in your arms and presses his lips to yours. He clutches at your shirt hard enough that you're surprised his claws didn't tear holes, and he gently nips at your bottom lip, making you shiver. Okay. This is a thing that is happening, right now.

You smooth your hand down his back, grinning against his lips as you hit a certain spot and he arches under your touch. You slip your fingers under his sweater again—it's something you do almost every time the two of you lay in piles and kiss like this. For some reason you just really like to feel Karkat's warmth, touch his skin. He has troll skin, it's different than yours; thick and tough but still somehow soft under your fingertips.

You part your lips and Karkat immediately pushes in with his tongue, whining as you suck on it in return. You make a low noise yourself—your mouth is really sensitive somehow, you can't help it. Karkat kissing you like this tends to really turn you on, kind of like what's happening right now. _Exactly_ like what's happening right now.

You push your fingers farther up Karkat's sweater, deciding to try something you haven't before. While he's preoccupied with tonguefucking your mouth, you slip your hands higher, enough to reach his grubscars.

You know that they're sensitive—you've played with them before, even. However, that was _through_ the fabric of his sweater, not under it. You press against them for a moment before starting to gently massage Karkat's sides with your fingertips. Karkat's lips leave yours in order to gasp in surprise and he gives a full-body shiver; you can't help grinning proudly to yourself for being the cause of it.

"This okay?" You ask softly, but you're grinning widely because you know it is, the way he's squirming in your arms tells you just how much he's enjoying it.

You keep your touch light, but firm enough to keep drawing those pretty little gasps out of Karkat that you have come to adore so much.  He just presses his face against the crook of your neck and makes these small sweet noises that make your face flush and also give you the desire to kiss him again. A lot.   
You do exactly that.

You lose track of what you were doing with your hands as Karkat kisses you hard enough to short-circuit your brain, so you're pretty much forced to just lightly rub circles into his skin with your thumbs while you kiss him. You can't seem to find the concentration for more than that. He still seems to really enjoy it, based on how he's kissing you. Nghhh.

You trail your lips away from his in order to kiss at the corner of his mouth, his jaw, his throat. You're still learning about what he likes and dislikes, so a lot of this is new hopeful tries (which thankfully are seeming to be going well). You find the little hollow behind his jaw and latch onto it, taking it in between your teeth and sucking on the skin.

"Holy _fuck,_ John-" you suck a little harder, and his voice cuts off with a strangled noise.

Marking his skin takes a lot more work than it does for him to mark yours, you've noticed. His is thicker and tougher, and making the blood rise to the surface is more difficult. However, that hasn't stopped the two of you from marking each other up before—though usually you try to keep it in a less conspicuous spot.

Oh well, who gives a shit if people see. You don't, and judging from the sounds Karkat makes when you bite down just a bit harder, he doesn't really care either.

You pull away to reveal a pretty good sized mark, and you grin, eyes flitting to meet Karkat's.

"You are the most insufferable, prideful hornlicker I've ever seen when it comes to making those," he grumbles at you, but he can't hide the way that his cheeks are still flushed from your attention and it makes you giggle.

"Yeah?" You respond, running fingers through his hair. "Well, I just do it because you like it just as much as I do." You find one of his horns and run two fingers along it before wrapping them around the base and squeezing. Karkat had sat you down for a long talk about his horns—apparently touching them felt pretty good to him as long as the two of you had already been messing around and making out for a while.

Karkat tilts his head into your fingers as you squeeze them, practically exploding into a huge bout of purring. Hehe, you can't help but to be proud of that.

You eye his other horn for a moment, the one you haven't touched yet, and barely hesitate before leaning up and wrapping your lips around it. Karkat dissolves into shivers and purrs at this, mewling at the attention.

"John, you fucker—ah, what the hell do you think you're doing?" He tries to sound angry, but his voice pitches every time you suck a little, so it doesn't really work.

You have to take your mouth off him to answer, and you do so with a little disappointed noise and a faint _pop!_ as your lips slide off his horn. "Wanted to see if it'd make you feel good," you tell him, panting slightly. "Also wanted something to do with my mouth."

Karkat rolls his eyes. "Oh, I'll give you something to do with your mouth, all right," he mutters under his breath, and you raise an eyebrow at the implications of that statement.

He catches your expression and backpedals. "That was a figure of _speech_ , you perverted little-" You kiss him to shut him up for a bit, then pull away with a grin when he has been appropriately silenced.

"Okay, I get it, figure of speech, but the offer is always open," you tell him with a grin and an admittedly failed wink. You can't wink. Don't ever let you try.

Karkat doesn’t really seem to be focusing on the fact that you completely failed at winking at him. Instead, he’s staring at your face like he can parse together some mystery of the universe if he looks hard enough—it’s making you slightly uncomfortable and extremely confused. “Uh, Karkat?” you ask slowly.

“What do you mean by that?”

Oh. Oops, you may or may not have totally spoken without considering your words. Probably not the smartest move that you’ve ever pulled. “Um,” you start, still just as eloquent as you had been the last time Karkat had asked you a question you couldn’t immediately answer. “I guess I meant what I said?” you try, laughing awkwardly. Oh man, your face is probably on fire right now; you feel like you might spontaneously combust any moment. “It’s not really a secret how much kissing you affects the both of us,” you add with a mutter, your tone of voice rather childish considering the conversation topic.

Karkat narrows his eyes at you, as if he’s trying to find out where you’re messing with him, but when all you do is avert your eyes and turn even brighter red than you had been about thirty seconds ago, his mouth drops open a little bit. “Holy shit, you’re serious,” he says.

“I’m sorry?” you whine, squirming underneath him in your embarrassment. “How about we go back to kissing and forget I ever said anything?” you try rather hopelessly. “Or that movie?”

“Fuck no,” he tells you, and you flinch slightly. “Not after you put _that_ idea into my thinkpan. You can’t say shit like that and then expect me to pretend that it never happened, not when you’re my matesprit. And especially not when you’re all flushed underneath me and kiss-dazed like you are.”

Did you really look like that? Uh. Okay. You can’t even dwell on his description of you long, because your mind is totally running _way_ away with the implications of Karkat’s words. “Do you mean…?”

He rolls his eyes. “Use your words, John. But if you were going to ask if I wanted your mouth on my bulge, the answer is yes. Please fucking do that.”

Nnnngh, you definitely want that too.

“Okay,” you tell him without really considering your words, and then grab his hips, flipping over so that now you’re the one that’s on top of him, straddling his hips. He makes a startled noise as you flip, and you grin down at him before touching his cheek with one hand, tilting his chin towards you and kissing him again.

It doesn’t take long at all for the kiss to get heated this time—especially not when you’re both thinking about what you may or may not be doing in just a few minutes. When you had first said that ‘the offer was open anytime,’ you hadn’t really expected him to take it at all (or even acknowledge it past a joke), but you sure aren’t complaining.

You slip your hands under his sweater again as you kiss him, but then break apart in order to tug some on the hem. “Clothes, off,” you tell him, sitting back on his thighs. You grab your shirt by the hem and pull it off as well.

You discard it somewhere off to the side, only to notice Karkat staring at you with wide eyes. “Uh, are you okay?” you ask slowly. He’s kind of really staring at you pretty hard, and it makes you want to cross your arms over your chest, or grab your shirt and put it back on or something.

Karkat tears his gaze away from your torso in order to look you in the eyes. “You’re different than me,” he mutters.

“I’m sorry?” you try, giggling slightly—your gut response when it comes to dealing with embarrassment. “We _are_ different species, in case you hadn’t noticed that before.”

He rolls his eyes. “Shut up, Egbert. I was staring because you are attractive, and as your matesprit I have full rights to do that.” He doesn’t let you respond (not that you’d be able to, you’re too busy blushing at the way Karkat called you attractive), instead pulling off his sweater and tossing it in the same direction as you had thrown yours.

Now it’s your turn to stare. You take him in slowly—he’s scarred on his lower stomach, and you remember him telling you about how Noir had stabbed him in the side. You had the same sort of scar right in the middle of your chest, from dying on your quest bed.

Shit, he’s attractive. He is different than you, Karkat was right about that—for one, he doesn’t have nipples or a belly button—but that doesn’t mean that you don’t want to put your hands and mouth on him.

Ooooooh, good idea.

You lean in to peck him once on the lips, then shift down to kiss at his neck, his collarbones. He rests his hands on your sides, just sort of rubbing little circles into your hipbones with his thumbs. You’re pretty sure it’s a completely absentminded motion, but you appreciate it nonetheless.

You’re learning a lot about what Karkat likes as you kiss him, like how he really seems to enjoy it whenever you bite his neck or shoulders, and how his purring gets particularly loud whenever you suck on his skin, or gentle your tongue over an especially hard bite that you had just left. He’s gonna be marked and bruised all over later, but you’ve got the feeling that he doesn’t mind—you’d had the conversation before with him that trolls were a lot tougher than humans, and the darker the mark you left on him, the more he tended to enjoy it.

You tend to enjoy it just as much as he does, because you’re really like the soft clicking noises that Karkat is making in the back of his throat as you shower him in attention and kisses. Your fingers are gently rubbing over his grubscars, and any time that you press a bit harder, a small noise bubbles up in his throat, notoriously close to a moan.

“John,” Karkat suddenly manages, and the way his voice strains when he says your name goes straight down to your dick. “John, I’m going to stain the shit underneath us if you keep biting me like that. Or if you continue at all. I’m practically fucking dripping.”

“What do you mean—“ You blink, glance down and _ohhhh_. Right. Karkat’s a troll, and buckets kind of imply a LOT of genetic material. It’s not really hard to put two and two together and get the gist of what’s happening down there.

At least you know that he’s just as turned on as you are, now.

“I _mean_ ,” Karkat growls, “that my _nook_ is _dripping_ and so is my _bulge._ ”

Karkat mentioning both his nook and bulge reminds you that you really don’t have a clue what’s going on down in his pants—now that you think about it, him being an alien means that he probably has something different going on down there than you. Well, you guess you’re just going to have to figure it out as you go!

“That’s fine,” you assure him, deciding that you don’t really care. “I have the codes saved for this stuff, we can always remake them. Or just throw them in the laundry?”

“Somehow, I highly fucking doubt that throwing them in the laundry is going to take all the red out,” he mutters. It occurs to you that since his tears are the same color as his blood, his genetic material probably is too.

You’re kind of proud of yourself for putting all this shit together with your own brain, instead of getting it explained to you in an extremely embarrassing conversation with Rose, or something.

“Fine then, throw them in with bleach,” you correct yourself. “Either way, I don’t really care,” you tell him, tugging at the waistband of his pants. “Lift your hips, I wanna get these off.”

He bites his lip, seemingly hesitating before he does as you ask. “You have to take yours off too, then,” he mutters.

“I will,” you promise, tugging his underwear and pants off at the same time, and woah. You suddenly have a lot of alien dick near your face.

Karkat’s bulge curls against his stomach, trailing a translucent red fluid across his skin under your fascinated gaze. “ _That_ is cool,” you tell him, and he rolls his eyes, though the tips of his ears practically glowing tells you just how embarrassed he is.

Time to join him in a similar state of pantslessness, you suppose. You sit up in order to unbutton your jeans and unzip them, then glance up at Karkat’s face momentarily before pulling both layers of fabric off at the same time like you had with Karkat, careful not to get the waistband of your boxers caught on your erection. That would kind of suck a lot.

“Do you have a nook?” is what comes out of Karkat’s mouth a moment later, his eyebrows bunched together like he’s confused as he stares at you.

“A what?” you ask—man, you’re gonna have to get your terminology straight, because despite the fact that you’ve picked up that it’s some sort of sexual organ (you think), you haven’t figured out much more than that.

“A—“ Karkat frowns at you. “Give me your fucking hand,” he tells you. You do so slightly dubiously, until he starts tugging your hand down and his intention makes your eyes widen.

“This is my bulge,” he says, letting you touch it with two fingers. The tip almost immediately curls around them. Cool. Then he tugs his fingers farther down, parting his thighs, and presses your fingers against—“ _That_ is my nook.” He lets go of your wrist, but you don’t immediately pull your fingers away, instead pressing down across the lips of his nook with two fingers. He lets out this little gasp, and you grin at him before finally pulling your fingers away. They’re pink with his fluid.

“Nope, don’t have one of those,” you tell him with an apologetic shrug. “Humans are one or the other.”

He blinks at you. “What the fuck,” he says, and you grimace at him. “I knew that humans were weird as shit compared to us trolls, but that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”

“You’re the one that made us,” you remind him.

“And your world got infected with my fuckup. Thank you for rubbing it in, John Egbert. I am so astounded at your lack of tact and ability to be a turn-off. Not.”

You grin up at him. “Guess I’ll just have to fix that!” you say, wrap your fingers around his bulge and give it a slow stroke. Karkat was right, red _is_ going to get everywhere.

But oh man, it is totally worth it for the way Karkat just moaned at you. “Can I do the thing?” you ask him hopefully.

“What thing?” he mutters, voice slightly dazed as if he’s still kind of reeling from your touch, like he didn’t expect it to feel as good as it does.

“The thing where I put my mouth on your bulge, and I guess your nook?” you clarify.

He studies you for a moment, red eyes lidded and face flushed with arousal. Man, you are going to have that expression in your head all day tomorrow. “I guess I trust you enough to let your teeth near my mating parts,” he says slowly, and you almost laugh at how he had said ‘I guess,’ because you _know_ that he trusts you. He wouldn’t have let you take his pants off in the first place if he didn’t.

“Good,” you say happily, and scoot back to kneel in the blankets and pillows over him. The softness of the pile was kind of really convenient—you get why pillows and blankets are the major component of a flushed pile, now.

Karkat seems nervous as you settle between his legs—obviously. He’s never done this before, and neither have you. You hope you don’t fuck it up. You smooth your hands over his thighs, parting them, but keeping your touch as soothing as possible at the same time. And then you reach up, gently but firmly trap the tip of his bulge against his lower stomach, and lean in to mouth along the base.

Karkat gasps, and makes this chirping sound in the back of his throat that you’re pretty sure amounts to a moan, considering how Karkat seems to be really embarrassed about it. You glance up at him every now and then as you work your lips over the underside of his bulge—the skin is soft and slick with his material, and you’re pretty sure it’s a lot more sensitive than you yourself are. You run your tongue straight up over it, letting go of the tip to seal your lips gently over it, and the moan that he makes in response was honestly hot as hell.

All of the bulge that you don’t have in your mouth (most of it) writhes against your face, and you’re pretty sure red is getting everywhere. You find that you don’t really care.

You part your lips and Karkat’s bulge pushes farther into your mouth without you even doing anything. Oh man, you hope that you don’t fuck up and gag or choke or something, because ruining the way that Karkat is gripping at the blankets and panting as he watches you would suck. And not in the good way.

You manage not to screw up when his bulge curls up in your mouth and you can sink almost all the way down to the base—you just work what you can’t fit with your fingers.

“Shit, John—“ Karkat starts before getting cut off by a soft gasp of pleasure as you suck gently. You’re pretty sure that you can imagine what you look like to him right now, with your cheeks stuffed with his bulge, pretty red faced from how it had been slathering over your cheeks earlier.

You can’t help it as your free hand slips down do wrap around yourself, thumb pressing down against your tip and making you whine around the bulge in your mouth. You pull off of him, watch as his bulge curls against his stomach again, seeking contact. Looking for your mouth.

You don’t give it to him. Instead, you let your fingers tangle with his bulge, and you dip your head down in order to lick at his nook, lapping up the dripping material.

“Holy _fuck—_ ” Karkat bites out, and you laugh some.

“I’ll take that as a good thing?” you ask. Wow, you don’t sound like yourself right now.

He narrows his eyes down at you. “If you don’t put your tongue back on my nook—preferably in it—I am going to push you over and shove it in your face.”

Oooooh. Apparently you have a kink that you weren’t aware of until just now, because that sounds like a great idea. “Got it,” you tell him, and lean back in to suck at the folds of his nook, just teasing the skin and muscle around it for a bit before you dip your tongue inside, and you feel his hand in your hair as his back arches and he moans.

You don’t spend long tonguefucking him, though—just push your tongue in and out a few times before you’re pulling away, and you take your hand from his bulge in order to pet at his nook with two fingers to prevent him from ranting at you or cursing you out.

You wrap your lips around his bulge at the same time you push your fingers into his nook, and he mewls above you, fingers tightening in your hair. You hope he doesn’t pull too hard, you rather like your hair _in_ your head, not out of it.

You can’t take his entire bulge into your mouth at once, so you have to be careful about how far you dip your head down, considering one hand is occupied with Karkat’s nook, and the other is touching yourself.

You glance up at him as you suck at his bulge, push your fingers inside him and _curl_ them deep inside his nook—the muscles keep trying to suck your fingers deeper inside, it’s hot as fuck.

Karkat practically screams when you do this, spasming on your fingers and you have to slacken your mouth so that you don’t accidentally tug too hard on his bulge with your lips.

“John, John—ah, shit—stop for a moment, fuck.”

You frown as you immediately pull your mouth off him, and tug your fingers away, hand stilling on your own erection as well. “What is it?” you ask, voice even hoarser than the last time you spoke.

“I’m going to come all over the pillows and blankets like this. I need a bucket.” His face is scrunched up, like he’s trying really hard not to gush a bucketful of material on your face right now.

“I don’t have one,” you tell him with a frown. “You’ve gotten enough material everywhere already, it doesn’t matter.”

“You are a sick excuse for a mammal, what the fuck,” he starts, but groans and just parts his thighs for you. “Whatever. I can regret this later. Fucking _hurry_ , though.”

You grin up at him before you get back to work, wrapping your lips around the base of his bulge and sliding up to take him into your mouth again, your fingers going back to his nook. It doesn’t take long from there. Just a few more thrusts from your fingers and a few times sucking on his bulge and he’s coming, gripping your hair hard enough it hurts.

You honestly were not a bit prepared for _how much_ genetic material Karkat actually produced, and you only manage to swallow once before you have to pull off, instead getting a faceful of material. Aw, your glasses are gonna need a real cleaning after this. As will your clothes. And everything you’re lying on. And yourself.

It’s barely a moment later before you’re seizing up with your own climax, and by the time your senses return to you, Karkat’s has ended as well. Everything is red and sticky. Holy shit.

“Damn,” someone says after a moment, and it takes you a bit to realize that it was you—shit, your voice is completely trashed.

“Get up here, you idiot,” Karkat tells you, hands cradling your cheeks and pulling you up to be face-to-face with him. He’s propped himself up against a pillow, and you lay against him, grinning smugly. “Your face is fucking covered in fluids, you moron, you should have pulled off sooner.” He reaches over to grab a semi-clean blanket and mop at your face, cleaning up the stuff all over it.

“I didn’t want to,” you say simply, closing your eyes as you let him lavish you in little attentions. You hesitate a moment before speaking again. “Was it good?” you ask softly, anxious.

“No, John, I came all over your face because it was terrible. Shut up, it was great. I’m going to have to do it in return soon.” You are _not_ ready to hear a suggestion that hot yet, wow. “You did...you come, right?” he asks slowly after a moment, narrowing his eyes at you.

“Yup!” you tell him with a grin, “there’s a reason we don’t need buckets! We don’t produce nearly as much genetic material as you do.”

“Oh.” He studies you for a moment before he pushes at your shoulder. “Here, move over into somewhere not completely soaked,” he orders you, and you giggle as you let him guide you into a significantly-less-red part of the pile.

Huh. Karkat seems to proceed to become extremely cuddly after he orgasms. He climbs on top of you once you’re settled down, and he curls up on your chest, purring loudly and pressing soft kisses to your shoulders and neck.

“You’re fucking great,” he mumbles, and you giggle.

“Thank you,” you tell him, running fingers through his hair, smiling at how it’s messy as hell and thick but still soft, and you love messing with it. “So are you.” You kiss the tip of one of his horns, not unlike you had earlier.

“Yeah, yeah, shut up,” he grumbles, and tilts his face toward you demandingly.

You laugh before leaning in to meet him in a kiss. It’s soft and simple and fucking perfect, and you’re absolutely sure you could kiss him the rest of the damn day and not get tired of doing so.

“We’re going to need to wash,” you hum against his mouth. “And either get rid of or wash all this stuff.”

“Later,” he decides for you, and closes the gap in order to kiss you again.

You and Karkat spend almost all your time together for the next few days. You had received a _lot_ of comments from the state of Karkat’s neck—you really had done a number on him. Sleeping with him the next few nights showed every time he took off his sweater before cuddling with you that the marks weren’t fading anytime fast.

You’re very okay with that.

Cuddle piles are your favorite thing—whether you’re watching a movie or making out, you absolutely love them.

You’re lying with him late at night one time when you think back to realize that all this started just because you had wanted to build a pillow fort with Karkat. You grin into his hair, tightening your arms around his stomach some, tugging him closer.

“What asinine bullshit are you thinking about now?” he grumbles into your neck. “I was about to fall asleep.”

“Nothing much,” you whisper softly. “Just being glad that I invited you to build that fort in the first place.”

It’s silent for a moment, and you shift uncomfortably, worried you said something wrong somehow before Karkat speaks up.

“I’m glad you did, too,” he mumbles, and it’s not long before you follow him to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway, thank you so much Gear for being a great friend, and I hope you (and everyone else) enjoy this fic! 
> 
> I'm always free to answer any questions via comments or [my tumblr](http://minamiren.tumblr.com) at any time. Thank you to those of you who have been really patient with my multichapters, too--cae(nad) should be up as soon as possible, once finals are over.
> 
> See you guys next time I finally get off my ass and get writing!


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